


Give Me What You Left Behind and Remake the World with Me

by navaan



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: AI Tony Stark, Captain America: Steve Rogers (2016), Civil War II: The Oath, Comatose Tony Stark, Dark, Dystopia, Hacking, Hydra Steve Rogers, M/M, Not A Fix-It, Possessive Behavior, Secret Empire (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-28 06:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11411946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Tony lies in a comatose state when Steve tells him a truth he can never be allowed to know. Steve’s plan had been to keep the man in an unbalanced state until it was too late until he could show him the new world he would create and now he’s robbed of the chance. But Tony’s AI is around. Now… Now he may have the perfect and final chance to make Tony stand with him, even if he won’t ever have what he really wants.





	Give Me What You Left Behind and Remake the World with Me

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much, [Laireshi](http://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi), for the beta! All remaining mistakes are mine, of course! 
> 
> Written for the [WTF square on my Cap-IronMan Bingo Card](http://navaan.dreamwidth.org/548911.html).
> 
> Ties in with the _Captain America: Steve Rogers (2016)_ run. That is a warning all on it's own.

He had never _not_ considered that this was one of the possible outcomes but when he’d considered it he had been the one breaking Tony’s neck; his hands wrapped around his throat or hitting him, again and again and again, until all life bled out of him and he lay before him, nothing but a corpse. Steve had considered all the possible outcomes and between all that had happened over the years between them _that_ had not been an unlikely one. Staring down at Tony’s lifeless face now… was… its own kind of disappointment.

A fight going too far, Tony fighting him to the last - all of _that_ would have made sense. It would have been closure. It would have been Steve trying everything in his power to make Tony see and having to accept the inevitable in the end.

This?

This was just a waste.

“SHIELD will make sure, he’s safe,” he said and watched Beast nod, busy and tired, no suspicion, no hint of doubt as he prepared the final data on Tony’s current condition.

Nobody knew.

Nobody even had the slightest chance of suspecting that they were trusting the wrong man, because Steve was careful.

And now Tony would never find out.

That too was its very own kind of disappointment. 

As he looked down at Tony, caught in this state between life and death that he’d chosen for himself through too many experiments conducted on his own body, the only thing he was feeling was anger. The same anger the other Steve used to feel every time Extremis came up, every time he realized how far Tony was willing to go in his arrogant pursuit of better armor, better technology, better _self_ and all the things Tony thought of as an advancement. And yet… And yet, he was grateful that Tony had left something behind. There was some final chance. He might wake up after all.

Steve had learned a long time ago that you could always count on Tony Stark to have a surprise in story for you.

“You’ll be safe,” he said to the motionless body. “You’ll be safe, Tony. I promise. Safe with me.” What he meant was: _I’ll have you safely under lock and key the way I wanted you, just not the way it should have been._ But only Steve knew. Only Steve would ever know.

When later he stepped into the security vault that had been especially prepared to hold Tony’s body in his current state, and he was sure that nobody was listening in or watching, he finally got to reveal the truth. What had happened in Pleasant Hill had brought renewed youth and clarity, but everything he - Steve Rogers from before and after - had been feeling over the years was still there.

 _Arrogance_ , he thought and looked at Tony, sure he should feel disgusted. But there was only deeply rooted anger he could grasp on to.

“He loved you. And he admired you,” he said and got up to see any sort of emotion flit over the motionless face. Nothing.

“I’m angry that you’re not here for this.”

More than anything he wanted _Tony_ here for this.

He had a place worked out for all of them, for Sharon, for Carol, for Sam, for Tony. _This_ was not how he had envisioned telling it all to Tony. He’d wanted the anger, the shock, the hopelessness, the admittance of defeat. The acceptance.

"In fact, I’m hoping - _praying_ \- that you can somehow hear me and this pulls you out of your sleep. Because I want you to see this, Tony, more than anything - I need you to see what I do next.”

_Come and stop me. Wake up and try. I deserve this._

He'd been ready for this fight since his real memories had been brought back. Now he felt cheated. He felt loss. Grief. He touched the glass over Tony's face and angrily stared down. _I need you to wake up, damn it. So wake up!_

 _I_ need _you!_

* * *

He heard of it from Sharon, who casually mentioned Victor Von Doom running around in an Iron Man armor and a kid who also had access to the armory somehow.

The anger surged back in, but he tried to keep it down. Coldly he asked: "Doom?"

"Yes, Steve, Victor von Doom."

He imagined Doom whizzing around in the red and gold armor and felt nothing but rage. Tony had ranted about Doom’s sudden interest in his life and his newly _handsome_ face. He crunched his teeth together at the memory. The word “handsome” had been repeated at least three times. But Steve also remember that Tony had not trusted Doom. He would not have left his armor to him. How had the worthless impostor gotten his hands on the armor then? "How?" he hissed.

"I called Ms. Mary Jane Watson this morning and I hope she can make room for you this afternoon and explain what happened. I thought you might want to handle this yourself?"

He did.

He _would_.

He wanted to crush Doom. 

Armed with shield and anger he made his way to what was left of Stark Industries after Tony had been taken out of the equation for good. Steve had just seen him that morning, lying in his high tech sarcophagus like a dead pharaoh dreaming of the world beyond, but unable to let go. Quickly stepping in and out to make sure Tony was still there, still alive enough to one day wake up, was becoming his daily ritual.

What he found at Stark Industries made him take a step back though.

"Tony?"

His voice shook and he hated himself for it. He was not the weak one. The weak Steve was gone. He straightened his shoulders and stared, ready to reach for the shield if he needed it.

"I'm only the back-up plan," the transparent form said, blue and shiny but unmistakably Tony - a perfect rendition of what Tony had looked like when he'd last seen him, alive and breathing. There were no worry lines though and Steve immediately wanted them back.

_I want you to see this, Stark. See what I can do, where the weaker me has failed._

"It's really you?" he asked.

"What is real?" the projection asked in Tony’s voice and looked him over. "I'm still dead, if that's what you were asking, Captain."

He stepped around the projection, watched Tony's ghostly form follow the movement with dead eyes. "You... turned yourself into this?"

"Fail-saves, Steve. The armor was programmed to make an emergency upload of my consciousness. I am a fail-safe. Legacy preserved. Knowledge preserved for the future. Hello." The holographic interface waved and smiled just like Tony would have done.

He stared. Then he reached out a hand, watched his fingers go right through the blue hand.

"You're a program."

"Artificial intelligence, please, old man," the AI smiled - grinned, as infuriating and handsome as Tony had ever been, "you know that. Use the lingo. You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Haven't I?" he asked and watched Tony move. It was so, so close to the real man, and yet… Dead. Something was missing. Not just the body.

He thought of the body, safely kept in a vault that nobody could even enter without Steve’s authorization. Another sliver of self left behind stood right here in front of him and he balled his hands into fists. Another piece of Tony was trying to slip through his fingers.

 _Illusion._ He carefully swept his eyes around the room. _AI. It’s stored in the machines._ He tried to think of how much processing power would be needed and how he could get his hands on that without giving himself away. Another part of Tony that needed to be put away securely.

 _I need you to see what I do next,_ he thought, remembering Tony’s slack face, and studied the AI that was studying him in turn, not human, but so close. Finishing his survey of the room he said: "A digital duplicate, huh? You’ve always been the smart one. It’s good to see you, Tony."

Suddenly everything he’d hoped for was in reach again.

Not like he had wanted it. Not like he had hoped for.

But at least a ghost had been left behind. A ghost that could be convinced. A ghost that could be made to serve.

Tony had always been the smart one. But Steve had always been the strategist.

Like all things in life, this was an opportunity.

* * *

Two days later a bank robbery was stopped by a new, but familiar hero. It was not a green and silver Iron Man, but a red and gold one, smaller, but just as powerful.

“Riri Williams,” Sharon informed him. “Tony knew about her.”

“Tony _knows_ about her,” he corrected and thinned his lips. “He’s helping her.”

“Digital duplicate,” Sharon explained. 

He laughed. Trust Tony to just go ahead and be a thorn in his side, just like always.

He called up all information on Ms. Williams from the SHIELD database later and went through a list of all enemies that had studied Tony. Nobody had studied him as well as Steve had, but he was looking for some new input and the kind of expertise that Steve needed right now.

A new name kept coming up.

Techno Golem.

And Steve knew what he had to do.

* * *

Tracking her down was easy. Making her listen was harder. Like many newborn Inhumans she was consumed by the extraordinary power of her new gifts.

“Tony Stark,” Steve said, “was a futurist. But _I_ have seen the future. And the future is mine, Ms. Tomoe.”

He let her see his cold smile and the steel of someone who would fight and kill to build a world that had no room for the kind of war she is waging.

“What do you want?”

“The question is,” Steve said, ” what you can give me so I turn a blind eye. Give me something and you and your operation will be safe for now.”

Her face remained a blank mask. “What is it you want?” she repeated, but her eyes gave away that she was willing to make a deal.

“Tony Stark,” he answered. “I want what is left of Tony Stark, at my side and following my command. Give that to me and your place in the new world order will be secure.”

He never lied. But they both knew it was not all it took for a secure place in the new Hydra he was building. He expected more. He expected better.

“I will give you the AI,” Tomoe promised, having made up her mind.

Two days later, Steve sat down with Helmut to discuss their next steps when the metallic door to their current base of operations slid aside and admitted Iron Man. It was an old armor model, one Steve had always been fond of. And even though Helmut jumped to his feet and Steve could see his eyes widen behind the mask, he himself didn’t move more than necessary. Just this morning, he’d seen Tony in his resting place in the Helicarrier and he knew the man wasn’t suddenly walking again.

He motioned for Helmut to keep still and not jump the gun. Following Steve’s every cue his friend stopped, frozen, but with his gun raised.

“Have you decided that you want to be your own Iron Man?” he asked and wasn’t sure how much of Tony’s personality was truly left.

The faceplate lifted and Steve tried not to give away how much he was looking forward to _seeing_ something in there. The shiny, transparent face was not what he wanted, but it was as close as he would get to seeing an alive Tony again and he looked forward to working side by side with an Iron Man who saw things his way for once.

Just for a second the specter's eyes shimmered green.

A nice little touch to make him see the artificial intelligence had indeed been compromised.

“It’s time to give humanity a safer world,” Tony’s digitized consciousnesses spoke in a menacing voice. "Humans," he continued. "They are the problem. They are their own destruction."

"But we can protect them," Steve said. He was smiling and he was aware of Helmut letting his arm sink to his side. Reading the situation correctly, he let Steve take charge.

"Iron Man," Steve intoned. "It's so good to have you here."

Tony - there and not there all at once - didn't grin, and his face didn't take on any of the lifelike expressions he'd shown before. He stared. "Tony Stark left me with the instructions to stand with his friends," he said.

Steve wanted to laugh. Tony, at his most suave and sophisticated, at the height of his genius, struggling for control and a vision for the future, had always been the most dangerous of them all. And out of all the Avengers Steve had made sure that _Tony_ had been the most preoccupied and off balance, because Tony knew him well enough to _notice_.

The digitized consciousness was the picture of calm and conviction; too calm to be Tony.

Against all reason, Steve wished he looked less put together, less perfect. He wanted Tony to be rattled, to look to him as he always had before.

"Let's remake the world together," Steve suggested and made a few steps towards the armor, let his fingers trail up the hard line of the metal arm and land on the artificial man's shoulder.

"Captain America and Iron Man," the AI said and it sounded like he was dragging up words from his data banks. "Together."

Steve grinned. “Together.”

Then Tony’s voice changed and the holographic face frowned, but he extended hand to shake Steve’s.

* * *

Helmut watched him carefully, after Iron Man had gone.

"How?" he asked.

Steve held up a small drive that held all the information on how exactly Tony's fail-saves had been by-passed and how his code had been altered. He could never let the AI see it. "Virus," he admitted. "Techno Golem wanted him out of the way and I wanted him on my side."

"He's not real."

"What is real?" Steve asked. "Ultron is real. He is an entity to be reckoned with and he has access to everything that belonged to Stark."

Reluctantly Helmut nodded. Then he laughed. "We have Iron Man now."

They laughed together. He had all that was left of Tony.

* * *

With the little drive hidden in his glove he made his way towards the special vault on the Helicarrier. No cameras, no surveillance and no unnecessary tech lined the room. Whatever Tony had done to himself in life that was keeping him frozen in the last moment before death, he ran on his own power. To Steve it had seemed safer to keep him disconnected and far away from the rest of the world.

Now, with Tony's digitized consciousness having taking his place, it seemed even more important to keep him apart.

The only chair in the room seemed like an old friend by now. He pulled it closer to the metal and glass construction holding the body, but in the end remained standing. He stared down at the peaceful face and let his fingers trace the glass, before he finally made the decision to open the cover.

Carefully he pulled the gloves from his fingers and then took out the little flash drive. A Stark Industries logo was printed across it and Tony would have appreciated the irony, that something he made held the virus that had tipped the scales against him and his legacy.

"Did you know?" Steve asked. "Did you know what would happen?"

There was no answer.

"I miss you. You should be here."

Finally he allowed himself the luxury to touch and cupped Tony's slack face; the skin was colder than was normal, but solid. He wanted to touch and reassure himself that Tony could be touched.

"We can get your consciousness a body again," he promised. "We will. It will all be perfect. It was always perfect when you did not fight me."

Of course, there was still no answer.

He pushed the flash drive into Tony's hands, made sure to close the unconscious man's fingers around it securely. "Keep that safe for me; for _us_ ," he whispered and leaned down.

No glass was keeping him from Tony now.

He thought about the blue tinged, transparent face telling him easily: "The world will be ours."

He pressed his lips against Tony's.

For a fleeting moment he allowed himself the thought that in a fairytale a kiss would wake the dead. But Tony didn't stir or move.

Steve let their foreheads touch. "You would have fought me every step of the way and I would have destroyed you, brought you back with me in chains and made you watch. You would hate everything about this if you could see it. You would have been a dangerous enemy and now you'll be my perfect little tool, Tony. Thank you, Tony, for leaving me all I needed."

He kissed his brow.

"Thank you for not leaving me all alone."

Carefully he closed the contraption, made sure everything was in order. Then he strode from the room, leaving it behind in darkness.

* * *

In the Helicarrier over New York Iron Man stood at his shoulder and watched the old order fall to ashes in silence. Tony would have raged. Tony’s AI had helped him perfect the strategy for his take over. Every picture of this day would forever have Iron Man stand beside Captain America.

Close enough to what it always should have been like.

A new world.

_Tony would have hated it, in his arrogance and blindness._

_Too bad you’re not here to stop it, Tony._

He smiled. 

_And yet you’re here to make it better._

**Author's Note:**

> [cazdraws](http://cazdraws.tumblr.com/) made wonderful art for this fic and you can look at it [here](http://cazdraws.tumblr.com/post/164579782691/tony-lies-in-a-comatose-state-when-steve-tells-him). *_*


End file.
